Mighty animals; being short talks about some of the animals which lived on this earth before man appeared

UC-NRLF

EARTH
SCIENCES
LIBRARY

MIGHTY ANIMALS

\

Restoration />•>/ Clciticitt H. Davis
BATTLE BETWEEN TWO DINOSAURS

MIGHTY ANIMALS

BEING SHORT TALKS ABOUT SOME OF THE

ANIMALS WHICH LIVED ON THIS EARTH

BEFORE MAN APPEARED

BY

JENNIE IRENE MIX

\\

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY
DR. FREDERIC A. LUCAS

DIRECTOR OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

EARTH
SCIENCES
LIBRARY

COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY
JENNIE IRENE MIX.

COPYRIGHT, 1912, IN GREAT BRITAIN.

MIGHTY ANIMALS.
W. P. I

THE aim of this book is to interest young people
in the life that was lived on this earth before man
appeared.

Of the many wonderful animals which lived
during that period in the earth's history only some
of the most striking among the gigantic types
are discussed. For information to be found in
books regarding these animals, the author has relied
chiefly on two works by Frederic A. Lucas, "Ani-
mals of the Past" and "Animals before Man in
North America: Their Lives and their Times";
"Extinct Animals" by Sir Edwin Ray Lankester;
"Age of Mammals in Europe, Asia, and North
America," by Henry Fairfield Osborn; "Extinct
Monsters," by Henry Neville Hutchinson; and
"The Mammoth and the Flood," by Sir Henry H.

5

359864

6 I'REFACE

Ho worth. Acknowledgment of valuable assistance
is also due the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

But the author's deepest obligation is to Dr.
Frederic A. Lucas, Director of the American Mu-
seum of Natural History, for the generous interest
manifested by him during the preparation of the
manuscript and its final editing for scientific accu-
racy. Without this cooperation on the part of
Dr. Lucas the author would not have ventured to
present this volume to the public.

PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA. ,

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION BY DR. FREDERIC A. LUCAS ... 9

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS 13

How A DINOSAUR WAS BURIED IN THE ROCK . . ..31

How THE DINOSAUR WAS TAKEN FROM THE ROCK . . 43

DESPOTS OF THE SEAS 63

THE FLYING REPTILES 77

THE LITTLE-BRAINED DINOCERAS 87

TlTANOTHERES AND OTHERS 99

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS ...... Ill

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS 129

INI

Director of American Museum cf
Natural History

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OT so very long ago a
Dinosaur was regarded
as a terrible reptile, in-
deed, whose very name was

*" •-•'•>••': ^ ''.-'

sufficient to deter us from
wishing further acquaintance with him.

Now the name is as familiar in our mouths as
household words; the discovery of a Dinosaur is
announced by the daily press as a matter of news,
and the Sunday edition depicts him at full length.
Sometimes, it is true, the portrait is least recog-
nizable by those best acquainted with him, but it
shows the public interest in these creatures of a
far distant day and a general desire to know some-
thing about their lives and times.

9

10 MIGHTY ANIMALS

Ancient history is largely a record of the deeds
of certain mighty men whose achievements have
made them prominent among all their fellows, and
it is fitting that something should be said of the
mighty animals that peopled the earth long before
man made his appearance.

The following chapters may be looked upon as
a series of biographical sketches of some of the
most prominent inhabitants, the very early settlers,
so to speak, of this and other lands, the story of
their lives and deeds as recorded by nature in the
stony leaves of the book of the past and translated
by man with much difficulty and labor. These
translations are very incomplete because many
pages from this book of the past have been de-
stroyed by Nature herself, and many others we
shall never be able to recover, so deeply are they
buried in the rocks. But it is a very interesting
history, "for there were giants in those days of
old" and Miss Mix tells us how they swam through
the seas, splashed through the marshes, and tramped
over the hills of the ancient world. More than
this, Miss Mix shows us how they looked, these

INTRODUCTION 11

strange beasts that lived in a time when there was
no human being to look at them.

It is a pity to spoil a story, or a book, by draw-
ing a moral, yet there is one point that I cannot
help making. How often, when looking at the
skeleton of one of these huge monsters, has some
one remarked, "What a pity that these creatures
could not have lived until now, so that we might
see them in the flesh ! " True, it would be interest-
ing ! Now there is much danger that our very
great grandchildren, passing through the museums
of to-morrow, will often remark, " What a pity that
all these animals should have been exterminated by
our ancestors ! "

Let us therefore try to save a few animals in
some sanctuary so that our descendants may know
about the creatures of to-day, for then there may be
no Miss Mix to tell about them.

m

(14)

LIMB OF. DINOSAUR IN POSITION
(Field Photograph, American Museum of Natural History)

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS

THERE was a time when the whole world was
ruled by mighty animals many of which were of
gigantic size and quite unlike the animals of to-day.
For thousands of centuries they were the monarchs
of the land, the water, and the air, and nearly all
of them died long before any human being had
lived.

But, although the most wonderful among these
animals disappeared millions of years before there
were any people in the world, we know how some
of them looked, where they made their homes, what
they ate, and, in some cases, how they died. It is
because their bones have been found that so much
is known about them. These bones are all buried
in rocks, and there are men who spend their time
searching for these rocks that -they may dig out
the bones and study them. In this way much
has been learned concerning these creatures which
once were the rulers of the world. And among

15

16 MIGHTY ANIMALS

them none were more powerful than the Dino-
saurs, for they were the largest of all animals
that have ever walked the earth. Even their
name sounds terrifying, for Dinosaur means Terri-
ble Lizard.

These monsters were scattered over the world,
but the United States, especially the western por-
tion, seems to have been their headquarters. Im-
mense quantities of their bones have been found in
Wyoming and Montana, and many others have been
unearthed in Colorado. We know that these
creatures also roamed over other parts of our
country, and in some places even the marks of
their footprints are to be seen in the rocks. By
comparing all the Dinosaur bones and footprints
discovered in the world men have been able to
learn how different from one another many of
these animals were in their looks and habits.

That some were flesh eaters and that others ate
only plants, is shown by the formation of their
teeth. There were big ones that were weak and
small ones that were strong. Certain kinds
walked on all fours, while the front legs of others

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS 17

were so short they could walk only on their hind
legs, like the kangaroo. Some were reptile-footed ;
others had feet like birds. But the men who have
made a study of their bones have classed them all
with the reptiles although they looked no more
like the reptiles of to-day than an elephant looks
like a canary bird.

Wonderful, indeed, must the world have ap-
peared when the Dinosaurs were alive ! Some
of them were sixteen feet high and eighty feet
long. Although these huge ones walked on all
fours, they occasionally raised themselves up on
hind legs and tail, and when in this position their
heads must have been fully forty-five feet above
the ground. Did a plant-eater see some sweet, ten-
der leaves at the top of a big tree? Then, if he
was hungry, all he had to do was to sit up on his
hind legs, rear his head, and pluck off the tooth-
some bit. Or did he suspect that an enemy was
approaching? Instead of depending on ears and
smell alone to detect the foe while still at a dis-
tance, he could rear up and take a look at the sur-
rounding country. Had there been any houses in

MIGHTY ANIMALS — 2

18

MIGHTY ANIMALS

those days, he could have looked right over the top
of a good-sized three-story building.

When the Dinosaur called Diplodocus reared up
in this fashion he must have presented a most
ridiculous sight. Stretching forty feet
along the ground was his tail; then
came his upright body twenty feet
in length ; next was his neck
reaching up twenty or
twenty-five feet far-
ther. And at the

end of this neck was

v^s.

MODEL OF DIPLODOCUS AND MAN TO SHOW COMPARATIVE SIZE

a head no bigger than that of a small horse. As for
his mouth, well, it is impossible to imagine enough
food being taken in through it to satisfy the appetite
of a creature which weighed nearly twenty tons.

But perhaps Diplodocus did not have a large
appetite. Being a reptile, he may have been cold-
blooded and, like all reptiles now living, able to get
along without food for days at a time. His weak

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS 19

and slender teeth, among which were no grinders,
were adapted only to soft food, and he undoubtedly
lived on the juicy plants that were then so abundant.
For in those days the western portion of North
America, where Diplodocus made his home, was not
a mountainous country. Instead, it was level and
made up largely of swampy ground, lakes, and
slowly flowing streams. The climate and vegeta-
tion were tropical, and this was the case in all the
other sections of the world where the Dinosaurs
lived.

Although Diplodocus was such an enormous
creature, he had a brain that was not much bigger
than a walnut. So he must have been as stupid
as he was awkward. All the Dinosaurs, for that
matter, seem to have been sadly lacking in intelli-
gence. The name Morosaurus (Stupid Lizard) has
been given to one species. Another species, called
Brontosaurus, although of tremendous size, was pro-
vided with but a tiny brain. The man who named
this creature Thunder Lizard, for that is what
Brontosaurus means, must have been thinking of
the sound which the animal made when he walked,

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS 21

and not of his voice. For no one has any idea
what sort of voices were possessed by the animals
which lived before man. If they were in proportion
to their size, it is fortunate there were no human
beings living then to hear the fearful din. When
large numbers of Dinosaurs were together what
deafening sounds must have rent the air.

Although these creatures were so very stupid and
were always at war with one another, many of
them lived to be very old. Just how old no one
pretends to say, but some men have expressed the
opinion that the largest lived for hundreds of years
and kept on growing all the time. For, as all
reptiles grow as long as they live, and as the Dino-
saurs belonged in the reptilian class, there is every
reason for believing that each additional year of
one's age meant an increase in its size.

Probably all of these animals could swim and
lived, for at least part of the time, in the water.
To have seen the gigantic ones traveling back and
forth through the streams, stretching their long
necks upward and eagerly scanning the shores for
friends or enemies, would have been better sport

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS 23

than viewing the biggest circus procession that
ever paraded for the benefit of the public.

Many . of them could wade in deep bodies of
water and still keep their heads above the surface.
It is thought that as they traveled in this fashion
they stopped now and then to browse on the vege-
tation that grew beneath the water. A Dinosaur,
having satisfied his appetite in this way in water
twenty or thirty feet deep, could lift his head above
the surface to get a breath of fresh air without
taking his feet off the bottom. And when he left
the water and lay down on the bank in the shade
of the palms and tall ferns to take a nap, he occu-
pied a good deal of ground space even if he curled
up his tail and doubled up his neck. But if he
stretched himself out at full length, the tip of his
nose was some eighty feet away from the tip of his
tail.

Just what sort of skin most of the Dinosaurs
had is not known. That of Diplodocus is believed
to have been thick and leathery. Two skeletons
of another species have been found with a cover-,
ing which shows that the skin remained over the

24 MIGHTY ANIMALS

bones after all the other soft parts of the body had
been destroyed. These skins indicate that the two
Dinosaurs when living were covered with small,
horny scales like those seen on the lizards of to-day.

Fierce battles were fought by these animals
during the thousands of years they were the kings
and queens of the earth. They not only had enemies
among other animals, but they attacked one an-
other with intense ferocity. In these battles the
flesh eaters stood the best chance of winning ; fon
while they were smaller than many of the plant eaters
they were much stronger. All of these flesh-eating

Dinosaurs walked on their hind legs, which in some

/

species like the vicious Allosaurus were seven feet
long. They could leap and run with great rapidity
and after they had once caught their prey, it seldom
escaped them. They held this prey in their grasp
with their powerful hind legs while they tore it to
pieces with their teeth.

But some of the plant eaters were so hideous that
no flesh-eating Dinosaur, however strong, need have
apologized to himself for being frightened when he
met one of them. There was Stegosaurus, for in-

26 MIGHTY ANIMALS

stance. He looked far worse than his name sounds,
and that is saying a great deal against his appearance.
He had a small head and no neck to speak of;
his front legs were so short that his nose almost
touched the ground, yet his hind legs were twice as
tall as a well-grown man. Then he had spikes on
his tail, and hard lumps all over his body, down the
center of which were bony crests two feet long and
sticking up two feet high, and -

But why tell more ? Is not this description suffi-
cient to prove that Stegosaurus, or, to use his English
name, Plated Lizard, was ugly enough to justify even
the strongest flesh-eating Dinosaur in running away
when he saw him coming ?

And then again, there was Triceratops, the Dino-
saur with the three-horned face, for that is what the
name means. These horns grew, one over each eye
and one on the end of the nose. Around his neck
this creature had a wide, tough frill that gave him an
astonishing appearance. Hard knobs were thickly
scattered over his back and tail, and, taken alto-
gether, Triceratops rivaled Stegosaurus in ugliness
while he was a more dangerous foe for an enemy to

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS

27

attack. The use he could make of his horns must
have worked horrible results, while the frill around
his neck and the hard knobs on his body served him
as an armor.

But if his enemy happened to be an animal with
even a fair-sized brain, then Triceratops found it hard

TRICERATOPS

(Drawing from a Model by Charles Knight)

work to hold his own in a fight, for brains are gener-
ally quite as necessary in animals as in human beings.
Although this animal with the three-horned face
was often twenty-five feet long, ten and one half feet

28 MIGHTY ANIMALS

high, and weighed as much as ten tons, his brain
seldom weighed more than two pounds ! So he was a
slow-witted creature although he did look so fierce.

There was little hope for Triceratops or any other
animal of his time when attacked by Tyrannosaurus
-the Tyrant Lizard — for, among all the flesh-
eating Dinosaurs so far discovered, he was the largest
and most vicious. There is no flesh-eating animal
living to-day nearly as dangerous as was this fearful
beast. He was forty feet in length, with a huge
skull, jaws four feet long, and teeth that often pro-
jected six inches from the socket. Triceratops was
no match for such a creature as this. The very sight
of his fossilized skull when it is seen in a museum
inspires terror. What, then, must Tyrannosaurus
have been when alive !

For a million years or more the Dinosaurs lorded
it over all the other land animals living on the earth.
We shall never know just how many species there
were among them, but enough have been discovered
to tell us that they varied in size from creatures no
larger than a chicken to gigantic forms. Strange does
it seem that, although all of them disappeared

THE MIGHTY DINOSAURS 29

millions of years before any human being lived, we
should know so much about them to-day. But the
human mind can read with remarkable clearness the
history of the earth as it is recorded in the rocks.
And the Dinosaur bones found buried in many of
these rocks furnish some of the most interesting
chapters in this history.

(32) REGION OF ROCK FORMED BENEATH WATER

(Field Photograph, American Museum of Natural History)

HOW A DINOSAUR WAS BURIED IN
THE ROCK

IN the days when the Dinosaurs were at the height
of their power, a Brontosaurus, as he pulled himself
from out the water to lie down on the shore for
a rest, was attacked by a hungry Allosaurus. The
agile flesh eater sprang on the back of the clumsy
Brontosaurus and instantly the two were engaged
in a terrific battle. For a while they fought on the
soft ground at the edge of the lake, and then both
fell into the water, where they continued their
struggle with renewed ferocity.

They fought long and hard, thrashing the water
with mighty strokes and uttering fearful sounds,
until, at last, Brontosaurus began to grow weak, be-
came quiet for a moment, then sank beneath the
waves. The victorious Allosaurus soon left the
scene of the conflict, swimming away with an ease
that showed he had suffered little injury in the
fierce encounter through which he had just passed.

MKJHTY ANIMALS — 3 33

34 MIGHTY ANIMALS

Now it happened that later the huge body of the
dead Dinosaur rose to the surface of the lake and
floated there. The action of the air on the flesh,
the heat of the sun, and the greediness of many
creatures living in the water, caused all of the soft
parts of the body to disappear leaving only the
bones. Some of these were broken by the teeth of
ferocious monsters and scattered in fragments,
hither and thither. But many other parts of the
skeleton fell to the bottom of the lake, where they
sank into the mud.

Because this mud was soft and very thick it
gradually closed tight over the bones, making a
covering for them through which the air could not
penetrate. Had it been possible for the air to reach
the skeleton, it would have decayed and crumbled to
pieces. But the mud kept every bone secure from
harm.

Time passed until all the animals which had been
living when this Dinosaur was vanquished in his
fight were dead. Other animals took their places
in the world and lived out their lives, and in their
turn died, to be followed by still other animals. And

A DINOSAUR BURIED IN THE ROCK 35

so life on this earth continued, one generation of
animals succeeding another, until thousands upon
thousands of centuries had passed. And all this time,
the bones of the Dinosaur lay sealed in their tomb
at the bottom of the lake.

But a change had taken place in that tomb, a
change so wonderful it may well be described as one
of Nature's most beautiful miracles. Day after day,
during all the tens of thousands of years the bones
had been lying buried, the earth along the shores of
the lake was being washed into the water in tiny
particles and, in times of storm, the streams flowing
into it were brown with mud. Large quantities of
this mud from the shores and the streams settled
to the bottom of the lake, and, in this way, the cover-
ing over the Dinosaur's bones became deeper with
each succeeding year. Occasionally, also, the bones
of other animals, which had died in the lake or had
been washed into it after they had died on shore,
settled into the muddy bottom. Even when twigs
and leaves from the vegetation growkig along the
banks fell into the water some of them found their
way, slowly and gently, to this same tomb of mud.

36 MIGHTY ANIMALS

And all these bones and leaves and twigs as they lay
at the bottom of the lake were covered up by other
mud that was washed into the water just as the
Dinosaur's bones had been covered.

Through all this time the miracle was taking place.
For the weight of the water on the mud at the bottom
of the lake was causing that mud constantly to
become a thicker and harder mass. The enormous
pressure cemented the tiny particles together until
they turned to stone. And this is the way many
rocks in which bones are found buried were formed,
- by the long-continued pressure of water on mud,
or sand, or millions of tiny shells. Other rocks con-
taining bones were formed through different pro-
cesses equally mysterious, and always this marvelous
change was wrought in some way by the action of
water.

*' But this changing of the mud into stone was not
all of the miracle that took place in the Dinosaur's
tomb. Not even the most delicate parts of his
skeleton were broken while this change was going on.
When he sank beneath the waves, this creature's
mouth had been partly open and at the time that his

(37)

. Davis

THE DEAD DINOSAUR AFTER THE BATTLE

38 MIGHTY ANIMALS

skull was buried in the mud the jaws were still
apart, leaving the teeth exposed. But, although
the weight of the water was sufficient to cement the
mud into solid rock, the teeth in this skull were not
even bent. For, just as rapidly as the mud had
turned to stone, so had the bones within them been
changed into the same material. How this could
happen no one has ever been able to explain. We are
told that as the animal matter in all such buried bones
disappears, its place is taken by lime and silica, but
how this change comes about we do not know. It
remains one of Nature's many beautiful mysteries.

Thus it was, that, after countless years, the bones
of the Dinosaur which had fought for its life in this
lake were changed into what is called a "fossil" and
lay imbedded in the solid rock beneath the water.
All the other things, whether they were bones, or
twigs, or leaves, that had fallen into the mud soon
after the Dinosaur had died, had been turned to
fossils also. And as more mud was carried into the
lake and settled to the bottom, more animals and
leaves and twigs found their way into this mud, and,
in this manner, layer after layer of rocks containing

A DINOSAUR BURIED IN THE ROCK 39

fossils were formed above those in which the Dino-
saur lay buried.

If the earth had never changed in any way, no one
would ever have known that the mighty Dinosaur
was in this rocky tomb. But it happens that the
earth is ever changing, occasionally because of
violent earthquakes, and constantly through the
action of the waters that beat against the shores
and the effects of rain and wind, heat and cold.

So, as the ages passed, changes began to take
place in this lake. Such vast quantities of mud and
sand had been carried into it that the bottom rose
higher and higher until the water that once had been
so deep became very shallow. The land in all the
region round about was changing also, and ravines
were formed through which the water from the lake
ran in rivers. In this way all the water at last
disappeared, leaving the lake dry. And by this time,
through the upheaval and sinking of the land, the
bones of the Dinosaur which had lost its life in the
lake, millions of years before, lay buried in the solid
rock five thousand feet below the surface of the
earth.

40 MIGHTY ANIMALS

No human being had yet lived upon the earth when
this lake disappeared and the rock which had formed
beneath its waters became dry land. Many thou-
sands of years were yet to pass before man appeared.
And during those years great crevices opened in the
rock because the earth was continually stretching
and contracting, and deep canons were cut out by
the waters. In other places huge masses of rock
were tumbled together in confused heaps. These
changes continued until even that deep portion of
the stone where the Dinosaur was entombed was
exposed to view.

After the wind and rain and sand had beat against
this rock for many centuries, the surface began to
wear away ; and, after another period of time which
no man can rightly estimate, some of the Dinosaur's
bones became visible. But there was no danger of
their falling from out the rock, even if it broke into
fragments ; for they were a part of the stone, only a
little different from it in color and texture.

In many of the rocks surrounding the tomb of the
Dinosaur were the twigs and leaves and the bones of
the other animals which had fallen into that ancient

A DINOSAUR BURIED IN THE ROCK 41

lake and been buried at the bottom and turned to
fossils. And they and the Dinosaur would all be
lying in those same rocks to-day were it not that
after man had been in this world for many centu-
ries, it was discovered that the history of the life
that was lived on this earth before human beings
existed was sealed up in the rocks throughout the
world.

Determined to read this history through studying
these rocks and the secrets buried within them,
certain men found a way to open the rocks and
take the fossils from them without injury. They
also learned how to put the skeletons of the animals
together just as they were in life. And because they
could do this it has come to pass that the fossilized
bones of the Dinosaur, which, millions of years ago,
were buried at the bottom of a lake that long since
disappeared, have been made into a skeleton and
are on exhibition in a museum.

How all this was done is another wonderful story.

HOW THE DINOSAUR WAS TAKEN
FROM THE ROCK

ON a midsummer's day a few years ago, three men
started out from a large museum in the United States
to hunt for fossils. They traveled without stopping
until they reached Medicine Bow in Wyoming,
which was the nearest they could get to their
destination by rail; and here they immediately
began making preparations for the rest of their
journey.

First they found a man who could cook for them.
Then they engaged a couple of laborers to do their
heavy work. After this much had been accom-
plished, they hired a wagon with two strong horses to
draw it, and three saddle horses for themselves.
They also bought food supplies and whatever was
necessary for a camp outfit in addition to the things
they had brought with them from the East.

When everything was in readiness, the entire
party started on the tedious journey into the fossil

45

46 MIGHTY ANIMALS

region. The three men from the museum rode horse-
back while the others found places in the wagon.
The weather was hot, and the farther they went the
hotter it became. The roads were rough and dusty
and sometimes little more than a trail. When, to-
ward the end of the second day, they came within
sight of their goal, they were thankful, although the
country was a barren spot fit only for sheep grazing.
They chose for the site of their camp a little stretch
of grassy ground near a narrow stream of water. It
was not such water as they could have found in
a country filled with verdure, for it was unpleasant
to the taste and not even good to look upon; but
it was the best there was, and so they were satisfied.
Soon the tents were pitched, after which a quantity
of the sagebrush, growing everywhere about, was
gathered for a fire. As this brush burns like tinder,
there was soon a roaring blaze. Supper was
cooked and eaten with a relish, although the fare
was of the plainest. By this time the sun had dis-
appeared and the air had become filled with a chil-
liness that made the three men glad to sit close to
the fire, smoking their pipes, sometimes telling

THE DINOSAUR TAKEN FROM THE ROCK 47

stories to one another, then again falling silent,
watching the leaping flames.

All round about were hills, the rocky sides of which
were seamed and jagged. It was a forbidding land
and one in which no man would choose to live.
Save for the voices of the men around the fire, the
occasional shouting of the "wrangler" as he cared
for the horses, and the frequent yelping of the
coyotes in the distance, the whole region was
silent.

Yet ages before, this same region had been filled
with strange sounds made by the voices of mighty
animals. For this was the place where once had
been the lake in which the great Dinosaur lost his
life in a fight with another of his kind. And all the
rocks in the hills and ground had once been the mud
tfiat lay at the bottom of that lake and in which the
Dinosaur and many other creatures had been en-
tombed.

Knowing that these rocks were full of the history
of past ages, these three men had come out to search
among them in the hope of finding the bones of some
creature which would add a new chapter to that

48 MIGHTY ANIMALS

history. So, early the next morning, they were up
and about their work.

Now, the only way it can be known that a rock con-
tains a fossil is when a portion of that fossil shows on
the surface of the rock. This portion may be so
small, and look so much like the rock, that one not
experienced in fossil hunting would never see it.
But the eye of the man accustomed to this work is so
trained that he can detect the slightest indication of
a buried bone as soon as he catches sight of it. As
countless rocks containing fossils do not show any
such indication, and probably never will, the crea-
tures which lie buried within them will forever re-
main undiscovered. It is very possible that many
a picnic lunch has been merrily eaten off a rock in
which a skull, or a foot, or some other portion of
a gigantic animal is buried, or perhaps the entire
skeleton of a smaller creature. Even the founda-
tion stones of our homes, or the sidewalks in front
of them, may hold the bones of animals unlike any
with which we are familiar to-day.

But there are some sections of the world where the
surfaces of many of the rocks have worn away until

THE DINOSAUR TAKEN FROM THE ROCK 49

the bones within them are visible, and such a place is
the region in Wyoming where these three men made
their camp. For days, however, after they began
their search for fossils, it looked as though they were
going to meet with nothing but failure. They hunted
on foot and they hunted on horseback, sometimes all
keeping together, sometimes each man going alone,
but they found nothing of enough value to ship back
to the museum that had sent them on their expedition.
They finally decided that unless a discovery was
made within the next few days, they would break
camp and move to some other locality where, per-
haps, they would find a richer hunting ground.

The next day found them all at work again, each
man taking a separate route. Late in the afternoon
as one of them was making his way back to camp on
foot, exhausted in body and discouraged in mind, he
suddenly stopped and stared at a rock jutting out at
the base of a bluff on his right. There, plainly visible
in the tomb within which it had been sealed many
millions of years before, was the half-open mouth of
the Dinosaur which had died in the lake while
fighting so valiantly for his life.

MIGHTY ANIMALS 4

50 MIGHTY ANIMALS

With a bound the man reached the rock. It took
him but a short time to decide that he had discovered
the head of some gigantic Dinosaur. He looked
about him to see if any other part of the skeleton was
in sight. Soon he came upon a rock in which was a
section of the backbone. Then he gave up further
search and hurried back to the camp. There he
found his two companions who, having met with no
success in their day's work, had concluded that it
would be better to move the camp the next morning.
When they heard the story of the third man they
were as delighted as they were surprised and all
turned in to sleep early so that they might begin the
next day's work in good season.

The following morning, soon after sunrise, they
were at the spot where the Dinosaur's jaws were
visible, eagerly searching for more signs of the buried
monster. But not a vestige of bone could be seen
aside from the jaws and the piece of backbone the
man had found the previous evening. So the men
concluded that the skeleton, if it existed, must
extend back into the bluff. The only way to find out
whether or not they were correct in their guess was

REMOVING AND PREPARING FOSSILS FOR SHIPMENT
(51) (Field Photographs, American Museum of Natural History)

52 MIGHTY ANIMALS

to dig into the hillside. This meant heroic labor,
for, as the rock was hard instead of being somewhat
soft, as is often the case with the rock in which
Dinosaurs are found buried, the cutting away of
the stone was a difficult undertaking.

After the rock containing the skull had been
loosened from the hillside and signs of other bones
were revealed, the men felt reasonably confident that
a large part of the Dinosaur's skeleton would be found
extending back into the bluff. To get it all out would
mean at least a year of work and perhaps two years.
So preparations were made for a long stay in this
desolate region, where there was no hope of their
seeing any other human beings except an occasional
sheep herder or cowboy. Two men were sent back to
Medicine Bow to get some extra supplies and mail
a report of the discovery to the museum. Soon after
this every man in the party had settled down to his
long task.

Presently it was found that it would be necessary
to make a tunnel into the bluff in order to reach the
bones. Knowing from past experience that such a
method might have to be adopted, the men had

THE DINOSAUR TAKEN FROM THE ROCK 53

brought gunpowder with them, and as every collec-
tor is expected to know how to blast, the tunnel
was soon being opened up.

As the work progressed a drawing was made by the
head man of the party that showed the location of
every rock before it was taken from the bluff. Then,
as each piece of rock was removed, strips of burlap
wet in plaster of Paris were wrapped around it, and
after the plaster had dried, the burlap made a safe
covering for the stone. As soon as a rock had been
thus protected it was numbered in the order in which
it had been found among the other rocks. This was
done so that when the men in the museum unpacked
these various rocks, they could put them together
according to the numbers, number two joining
number one, number three joining number two, and
in this way the rocks would be laid out in the museum
in the same position in which they had been dis-
covered.

While working their way into the bluff the men did
not, of course, find the bones of the Dinosaur arranged
just as they had been in life. As some of them had
been torn from the skeleton by vicious creatures

54 MIGHTY ANIMALS

when it floated on the surface of the lake millions of
years before, and as these pieces had been carried
far off and lost, the entire skeleton could never be
found. But, considering the devastation that is
always wrought by living creatures in all such
skeletons before they are buried, and the many
changes that occur in the earth after their burial,
the bones of this Dinosaur were discovered in unu-
sually good shape.

Slowly, but surely, the bluff was made to yield up
to man this animal which had died ages before any
man had lived. To recount all that it was necessary
to do in order to recover the skeleton would be to tell
of many months in which every day was filled with
the hardest kind of labor. Some of the rock was
removed in sections that weighed two tons; and to
handle these was a serious undertaking when the
tools and appliances at hand were not many.

But there came a day, about a year after the
Dinosaur had been found, when it was decided that
all of the skeleton which was in that locality was
unearthed. After every piece of rock had been
wrapped and numbered and then securely boxed, the

TAKING THE FOSSIL FROM THE BLUFF
(Field Photograph, American Museum of Natural History)

56 MIGHTY ANIMALS

work of transferring the boxes to Medicine Bow
began. It took many trips of the wagon before this
task was accomplished. Back and forth in the blaz-
ing sun, went the sturdy horses patiently pulling the
load that contained the skeleton of a creature which,
long before any kind of a horse had lived, was mon-
arch of this very region. Finally all the boxes were
safely packed in a freight car, and then the Dinosaur
started on his long journey.

The train sped swiftly eastward, through a country
far different from anything in existence during the
Dinosaur's lifetime, and when, at last, the engine
pulled the car containing the bones of this ex-monarch
into the station of the city which was thereafter to be
his home, he had traveled more than two thousand
miles.

Although the Dinosaur was so unlike any animal
which any person had ever seen alive, the men into
whose charge the rocks containing his bones were
given when they reached the museum knew a great
deal about how he had looked in life. Soon they
were at work getting the pieces of rock in order so
that the bones could be taken from them. All

THE DINOSAUR TAKEN FROM THE ROCK 57

these pieces were arranged according to the numbers
with which they were marked. As each rock was put
into its place the diagram made by the man in the
field was consulted. Every rock fitted just as the
diagram showed it should, and this proved that the
work of collecting had been well done. Sometimes
a collector is careless in this part of his work, and
this carelessness not only makes endless trouble for
those who take the bones from the rock, but injures
the collector's reputation as well.

And now, at last, the men were ready to free the
skeleton from the rock, a work that would require
from one to three years to accomplish, according to
the difficulties they should meet as they progressed.
Only men who knew the formation of the bones of
the Dinosaur as well as a surgeon knows the forma-
tion of the bones in the human body, could be trusted
with this undertaking. But, as there were in this
museum some of the most capable men in the world
in this sort of work, there was no delay in beginning
the task of taking the Dinosaur from his tomb.

Carefully, with delicate strokes of various-sized
hammers on various-sized chisels, the men chipped

58 MIGHTY ANIMALS

the rock away from the fossil. The man who
worked on the rock in which nothing was visible
but the grinning jaws knew that he would be likely
to find all of the Dinosaur's skull within the stone.
But how was he to get this skull out without breaking
it with his chisel? He could avoid this disaster
because he knew so well how the bones in the heads
of different Dinosaurs are shaped. The position of
the jaw helped him to understand where the rest
of the head lay. Of course, this head might be found
in a shattered condition, and if so, he would be
obliged to work all the more cautiously in order to
recover every fragment so that after all the bones
had been freed from the rock, they could be cemented
together into a skull.

But this Dinosaur's head proved to be remarkably
well preserved, without a bone displaced. It took
many weeks to get it from the rock, but, as the
stone was chipped off, a little more each day, the
skull emerged farther and farther from its tomb and
took on an appearance of life that was thrilling to
watch. There was a fierceness in the set of the
open jaws that spoke of this creature's violent sensa-

THE DINOSAUR TAKEN FROM THE ROCK 59

tions as he went down to death. And when, nearly
two years later, all of the skeleton had been taken
from the rock, marks were found upon it showing
where the teeth of his enemy had pierced the Dino-
saur to the bone.

While chipping the skeleton from its tomb the
men had occasionally come across pieces of bone
that once were parts of other animals which had
been buried in the mud at the bottom of the lake
about the same time that the Dinosaur was buried.
They also found some of the twigs and leaves that
had fallen into the lake and had been turned to fossils
in the same mud. All these bones and twigs and
leaves made it possible for them to know what kind
of vegetation grew on the shores of the lake in which
the Dinosaur had died, and also something about
the animals which were his neighbors.

The character of all these fossils and the formation
of the rocks that contained them, as well as the
position of those rocks in the bluff in which they
were found, all helped the men who worked over
this Dinosaur to gain an idea of how long a time had
passed since his death. To be able to judge of the

60 MIGHTY ANIMALS

age of fossils is in itself a science and one which is
every year advancing.

After all the bones of the Dinosaur had been freed
from their prisons, there was still much to do before
the skeleton could be put together. Certain parts
were missing and these had to be made out of plaster
of Paris. Some of the ribs on one side were lacking,
but it was not a difficult matter to replace them
with. artificial ones exactly like the ribs on the other
side. As there was but one hind foot, another was
made to match it. A portion of one of the front
legs had to be pieced out ; but there was less of such
work to be done on this skeleton than is usually the
case with such large specimens.

All the necessary pieces having been supplied, the
men put the skeleton together just as it had been in
life. Their knowledge of living animals was an aid
to them in this part of their work, for, while this
Dinosaur was different from any animal ever seen by
man, he still had a head and neck, a backbone and a
tail, legs and feet, and these were joined together
much after the manner of living animals. So, the
more a man who prepares one of these fossil skeletons

62 MIGHTY ANIMALS

for exhibition knows about the skeletons of living
creatures, the better skilled is he in his work.

Piece by piece the bones of this monarch of other
days were adjusted until at last he stood upright on
his huge feet, his body more than twice as tall as the
tallest man and over seventy feet in length. Iron
braces were used to support the monster when he was
placed on a platform in the main exhibition room of
the museum.

Thus it was that the bones of the Dinosaur
which had been killed ages before any human
being lived found a home in a great city where
each year many thousands of people would look at
him with amazement. And all round about him in
this same museum were the skeletons of other ani-
mals which had lived before man. Some of them
had made their homes on the land, some in the air,
some in the water. Many among them had been
rulers in their time just as had the Dinosaur in his.
And how these rulers looked when alive, and where
they lived, and how they were at last found in their
rocky tombs, are stories well worth the telling.

(64)

Restoration by Charles Knight

ICHTHYOSAURS
(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American Museum of Natural History)

DESPOTS OF THE SEAS

DURING the same time that the Dinosaurs were the
tyrants of the land the seas also had their despots
and among the mightiest of these was the Ichthyo-
saur or Fish-Lizard, to call him by his English
name.

Like the seas of to-day, those in which the Ich-
thyosaurs swam were a world in themselves. Their
population was made up of many kinds of creatures,
big and little, weak and strong, all of which had to
find their own food. So they ate one another, and
sad was the fate of the weak and timid among them.
Immense quantities of fishes were, we may be sure,
devoured by the greedy Ichthyosaur, and he must
have caught his prey rather easily, for he was the
swiftest swimmer of his time. Although he had two
pairs of paddles, his broad and strong tail was the
chief means by which he propelled himself through
the water at express- train speed. And terrible was

MIGHTY ANIMALS — 5 65

66 MIGHTY ANIMALS

the fate of any creature unfortunate enough to get
in his way.

There was once a man who, in trying to describe
an Ichthyosaur, wrote this jingle : -

" Behold a strange monster our wonder engages,

If dolphin or lizard your wit may defy,
Some thirty feet long on the shore of Lyme-Regis,

With a saw for a jaw and a big staring eye.
A fish or a lizard ? An Ichthyosaurus,

With a big goggle eye and a very small brain,
And paddles like mill-wheels in clattering chorus,

Smiting tremendous the dread-sounding main."

We may know from this that the Ichthyosaur was
not a pretty object to look at and that he was a
creature of gigantic size and strength.

This mighty Fish-Lizard had immense eyes, round
and glaring, and an enormous jaw that sometimes
contained as many as two hundred and forty sharp
teeth. But this jaw was only a part of his fearful
head which was frequently five and a half feet in
length. Other Ichthyosaurs, even when full grown,
did not measure more than this from the tip of the
tail to the end of the jaw, and it is quite possible

DESPOTS OF THE SEAS 67

that the big Ichthyosaurs often made a meal of
these small relations of theirs. We would hardly
call a fish five feet long small if we tried to eat it ; but
to the voracious Ichthyosaurs, a creature of this size
probably seemed nothing more than a light lunch.

All of the Ichthyosaurs, large and small, are
believed to have had a smooth skin, for no scales
have ever been found lying near any of their skele-
tons. Large numbers of these skeletons have been
discovered and are now to be seen in museums
throughout the world. But it was a long time
after the first Ichthyosaur was dug out of the rocks
some two hundred years ago, before any one could
make out what sort of creature it was. Then,
about the year 1814, it was learned that the bones
were those of some monster which had lived in the
water millions of years before the time of man.

It is thought that the Ichthyosaur was descended
from some land animal. For we know that as the
earth slowly changed in its climate and vegeta-
tion, the animals living upon it had to change
their habits. The species which were not able
to do this gradually died off until they entirely

68 MIGHTY ANIMALS

disappeared. But other species which were more
fortunate lived through these changes, although,
in doing so, their whole manner of life was altered
and also their forms. When some of the land ani-
mals could no longer get enough to eat on the
land, they found food in the water and, after many
generations, became water animals. Some of the
ancestors of the Ichthyosaur were probably thus
driven from the land to keep themselves from
starvation. This was what happened to the ances-
tors of the whale and seal of to-day, for these
creatures are descended from land animals. But
it took centuries upon centuries for land animals to
become so adapted to the water that they could
live in it entirely.

When in the full glory of their power, the Ich-
thyosaurs swarmed in the waters of Europe, India,
Australia, New Zealand, and the east coast of
Africa ; but they were not so numerous in America.
Yet, mighty as they were, they did not maintain
their position as rulers of all these waters without
some trouble; for they had many dangerous en-
emies, among which were the Plesiosaurs.

DESPOTS OF THE SEAS 69

The Plesiosaur did not look at all like the Ich-
thyosaur. He had a thick body, short tail, four
very strong and large paddles, a remarkably long
neck, and a small flat head somewhat like that of a
snake. Some one once said that this creature looked
like a snake threaded through the body of a turtle.
But the name given him is in no way connected
with snakes or turtles, for Plesiosaur means "near
to a lizard."

When swimming, the Plesiosaur could stretch his
long neck far above the water; and many a little
flying creature which happened to come within
reach of his cruel, toothed jaws met a quick death.
When his head was below the surface he could twist
his neck in all directions, looking for enemies, and
this gave him an advantage over the Ichthyosaur,
which had a very short neck. But, when it came
to a downright fight between the two, the Ichthyo-
saur had the advantage, for he was swifter in his
movements than the Plesiosaur and stronger of
muscle. Yet he did not always win the battle,
although when he charged upon his foe with jaws
set ready -to sink those two hundred forty teeth

70 MIGHTY ANIMALS

into him, things must have looked bad for the
Plesiosaur. Great was the commotion when the
two met, nor would either give up the combat
until one was dead. For they were both mighty
creatures, and each was determined to be king of
all the animals then living in the water.

There came a time, however, when both the
Ichthyosaurs and the Plesiosaurs began to dis-
appear. Then the sea serpents became the rulers
of the waters throughout the world. Nowadays no
one believes in sea serpents, and a sailor who claims
he has seen one is laughed at. But millions of
years ago, if there had been any sailors living, they
might have seen large numbers of such serpents
from six to forty feet in length, wherever they
happened to sail. They would have seen more of
them in America than in any other 'country, and
especially in the seas that then covered Kansas
and Nebraska. And the waters that filled the
space now occupied by New Jersey, Alabama,
North Carolina, and Mississippi were also inhabited
by these serpents, but not in such large numbers
as were the western waters.

(71) • Restoration by Charles Kniyht .

MOSASAUR

(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American- Museum of Natural History)

72 MIGHTY ANIMALS

The name Mosasaur has been given these crea-
tures because it was in Belgium, in the valley of the
river Meuse, that the first one was discovered.
The words Meuse and "saurus," which is Greek
for lizard, were made into Mosasaur. Some work-
men who were blasting the rocks underneath one
of the mountains in this region were astounded
when, after they had set off a blast in a cavern,
they saw the jaws of some animal imbedded in
the roof. They immediately reported their dis-
covery, and a Dutch military surgeon who was
interested in collecting fossils hurried to the spot.
He knew in a short time that the bones were those
of some animal different from any then living.
Soon he had men at work removing the precious
discovery and was overjoyed to find that almost
an entire skeleton was buried in the rock. The
bones were taken to the near-by city of Maestricht,
where they were received with great enthusiasm.
It was not long before the fame of this fossil spread
over Europe, and the people of Maestricht felt
very proud to have it in their possession.

Twenty-four years later, in 1794, during the

DESPOTS OF THE SEAS 73

i

French Revolution, the French, under Kleber, be-
sieged Maestricht. But orders were given not to
fire on the building that contained the Mosasaur.
Kleber was determined to take this celebrated
fossil back to France with him, and he was anxious
that it should not be injured during the bombard-
ment. After he had captured the town, he de-
manded the skeleton as one of the prizes of victory.
There was nothing for the Maestricht authorities
to do but to give up the cherished treasure, and
Kleber carried it off in triumph to Paris, where it
still remains and is one of the most valued exhibits
in the zoological gardens.

When this Mosasaur was alive he had a long,
snakelike body covered with scales, a long tail,
and a slender flat head. His jaws opened very
wide, and his throat was so baggy that he could
swallow his food whole. When, in his greediness,
he put too much in his mouth at once, he used his
under jaw as though it were an arm and pushed
the food down his throat. By extending the arms
at full length with the palms of the hands touching
and then bending the elbows in and out one can

74 MIGHTY ANIMALS

•, **

gain a very good idea of how this jaw worked.
Then, to make matters worse for his prey, the
Mosasaur had many sharp teeth. So what chance
of escape did any fish have when once he had been
captured by this sea serpent?

Although the Mosasaur was provided with four
paddles, which he used in swimming, two on each
side of his body, his tail was the engine on which
he relied for speed. As he made his way with
lightning-like rapidity through the water, now
gliding straight ahead, now twisting and turning,
now diving suddenly toward the bottom, then
rushing up again to the surface, all creatures of less
strength must have hastened to their hiding places.
Even the gigantic turtles which were living in those
same waters very likely made it a point to get out
of the way when they saw a Mosasaur headed in
their direction.

And a greater panic than this must have seized
all these creatures when an Elasmosaur got angry
or started out on a- search for a meal. For the
Elasmosaur was even longer and mightier than the
Mosasaur, which he closely resembled, although he

Restoration by Charles Knight

ELASMOSAUR
(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American Museum of Natural History)

76 MIGHTY ANIMALS

was really a distant relative of the Plesiosaur. So
powerful was this creature that wherever he went
he left destruction in his path.

When a number of Mosasaurs or Elasmosaurs
got together to fight or to frolic there must have
been a tremendous splashing. But they fought
far more than they frolicked, for in those days life
was one constant warfare in which the big animals
battled to keep their positions as rulers, and the
smaller ones to save themselves from utter destruc-
tion.

Then, after a time, all these sea monsters com-
pletely disappeared. Even the waters in which
they lived have vanished and in place of them are
cities and towns, villages and farmlands. And so,
to-day, people by the thousands are living where
once these despots made their homes.

REPTILES

C78) Restoration by Clement It. Dttri*

PTERODACTYLS SEEKING FOOD ON THE CLIFFS

THE FLYING REPTILES

AMONG the many wonderful creatures flying
through the air in those days when there were no
people in the world were the reptiles called Ptero-
dactyls. The outspread wings of the largest of
these monsters measured twenty feet from tip to
tip. No animal has ever flown through the air
since man lived on earth which could compare with
this in size.

Even the bravest among the Dinosaurs must
have felt some fear when he saw one of these gigan-
tic creatures hovering over his head. And a Plesio-
saur, swimming with his neck stretched far above
the water, probably had cause for watching warily
when a big Pterodactyl came near him. For,
although these flying reptiles did not eat the big
land-and-water animals, we may be sure they were
quite ready at times to do battle with them.

Some of these mighty rulers of the air had long

79

80 MIGHTY ANIMALS

and narrow heads ending in beaks a foot and a
half in length. These Pterodactyls were toothless,
but others with short heads and beaks had very
sharp teeth, which they put to cruel use when fight-
ing as well as when catching the small animals on
which they fed. However, not all of the Pterodac-
tyls were large. They varied greatly in size, some
being no bigger than crows. But they, every one,
had four legs, each ending in four fingers, and be-
cause the outside finger of each front leg was fas-
tened to the wing and grew its entire length, these
creatures were named Wing-Fingered — only, instead
of using the English words, men have taken two
Greek words, "pteron" (wing) and "dactylos"
(finger), and made the name Pterodactyl.

The eyes of these flying reptiles were so large it
is thought they may have gone about mostly at
night, as do the bats and owls of to-day. But
whether the long-necked, long-headed Pterodactyl
went about by night or by day, it was easy for
him to see in all directions without turning his
bqdy. If he suspected that he was being followed
by an enemy, he could look behind him without

THE FLYING REPTILES 81

for a moment stopping his rapid flight forward.
This was because his neck was so flexible he could
twist it around until the tip of his beak pointed
straight toward the tip of his tail. For Ptero-
dactyls had tails, some of which were very long,
others very short, and many of medium length.
The long tails suddenly broadened at the end inta
a shape like that of a leaf. This would lead one to
think that they were used as rudders in flying.
As he traveled through the air the long-tailed
Pterodactyl must have been an alarming sight
with his wicked-looking head, his wings spreading
out on either side of his bat-like body, and his tail
stretching far behind him.

If such a Pterodactyl was a terrifying sight
when flying, he must surely have been a laughable
one when on the land. For there seems to have
been no way for him to walk about except on his
hind legs, with his great head curved far backward
so as to keep his balance. If he covered the ground
very rapidly while in this position, he was certainly
more intelligent than he looked. But he probably
did not descend to land for the sake of running

MIGHTY ANIMALS — 6

82 MIGHTY ANIMALS

about, but rather that he might crawl around in
search of small animals to eat, and in the thou-
sands of insects flitting back and forth he found
plenty of daintier food. He may, also, now and
then, have foraged for a meal of birds' eggs up
and down the sides of cliffs to which he could cling
with the sharp claws on the ends of his fingers.

But it is supposed that the Pterodactyl fed
mostly on the fishes with which the lakes and seas
abounded. Greedily he hovered over the water,
watching until a fish ventured too near the surface.
Then down would swoop the monster to snap up
his victim in his savage beak. Or, at other times,
he may have rowed himself over the water with his
powerful wings, using the wing membrane, as does the
bat, to grasp his prey and carry it to his mouth.
But, to judge from his weight, the Pterodactyl was
not a very large eater. One species, the head of which
alone measured nearly four feet in length, did not
weigh more than twenty-five pounds, and his largest
finger bones, although two feet long and six inches
in- circumference, were almost as thin as paper !

No one knows just how the Pterodactyls raised

84 MIGHTY ANIMALS

their families. Perhaps they built nests in which
to hatch their eggs, or they may have buried the
eggs in the sand where they were hatched by the
sun. Some day we shall probably learn more about
the family life of these strange creatures, for their
bones are continually being found and studied.

It was in Bavaria, in the year 1784, that the first
bones were discovered. But no one could make out
whether they were part of an animal which had lived
on the land, in the water, or in the air. Then, twenty-
five years later, these bones were examined by Cuvier,
the celebrated French naturalist, and he was able to
prove that they belonged to some extraordinary flying
creature. Since then it has been learned that these
winged reptiles made their homes in nearly every
part of the world, but they lived in Europe many
centuries before they found their way to America.
Just how they got here no one can tell, but once they
had arrived, they increased greatly in size and num-
bers. They lived around the inland sea that was
then part of the western United States, and in Kansas
their bones have been found in abundance.

Nor were the Pterodactyls the only creatures flying

THE FLYING REPTILES 85

around that western sea. There were birds, similar
to those now living, and there were also other very
queer birds with teeth. Then there were myriads of
insects like dragon flies, locusts, and moths. But as
long as they lived, the Pterodactyls held undisputed
sway over all other inhabitants of the air the world
over.

What a scene it must have been upon which these
mighty rulers looked down as they flew hither and
thither ! Great stretches of water, in which swam
sea serpents and other astonishing forms; swampy
expanses of land, over which Dinosaurs walked by
the thousands and gigantic crocodiles and tortoises
crawled. And amid all this teeming life there was
not one human being.

iliCERAS jB&a

cSKSSmA

wt&S.' "Sa^R^E

THE LITTLE-BRAINED DINOCERAS

ALL of the Dinosaurs and Ichthyosaurs, the
Plesiosaurs, the sea serpents, and the flying reptiles,
had been dead for hundreds of thousands of years
when a mighty animal different from any which had
ever lived before appeared in the western part of the
United States. Nor is anything like it living now.

Because he had six horns on his head this animal
has been called Dinoceras .which is Greek for Terrible
Horn. These horns, which were something like
knobs, were arranged in pairs. The smallest pair
stood on top of the nose, the second pair a little
behind them, while the third and largest pair was at
the very back of the head. And then, in addition
to all these unbecoming decorations, the Dinoceras
had two enormous teeth in his upper jaw that grew
downward like tusks. They were exceedingly sharp
and often seven or eight inches in length.

But there was something about this beast much
more curious than the horns and tusks he carried

89

90 MIGHTY ANIMALS

on the outside of his head. This was the brain he
carried inside of it. For the Dinoceras had the small-
est brain in proportion to his size of any land animal
so far known. The body of a man weighs only
thirty-five times as much as his brain. The body of
the Dinoceras was four thousand times heavier than
his brain. What a stupid creature he must have
been ! Probably he was provided with his horns
and his tusks so that he could protect himself against
the attacks of other animals, which, though smaller
than he, were larger-brained and therefore quicker
in their movements, and, more cunning. In his
combats with these brainier animals the Dinoceras
for a long time came out the victor. Had it been
otherwise, these horned monsters which were about
the size of a big rhinoceros could not have lived in
such large numbers for many hundreds, perhaps
even thousands, of years. But, as they finally all
disappeared from the earth, it is natural to suppose
that the bigger-brained animals at last conquered
them.

The only place where the Dinoceras has been
discovered is the desert that occupies southwestern

THE LITTLE-BRAINED DINOCERAS 91

Wyoming and northeastern Utah. Nothing more
desolate than this whole region can be imagined, for
it is made up entirely of rocks. And within these rocks
lie buried the bones of countless animals. Professor
0. C. Marsh was the first man who ventured to
explore this vast cemetery in search of these bones.
He was rewarded by discovering the Dinoceras
which, at first, was given the name Uintatherium -
Uinta Animal — because it was found in the Uinta
rock formation, and in some museums and books this
name is still used. Before he succeeded in taking
any f ossijs from the desert, Professor Marsh had many
an exciting experience. For the Indians living
near by believed that these fossils were the bones of
their ancestors whom they worshiped. So they
started some spirited fights in their efforts to keep the
white men out of this old burial ground.

For many generations the Indians who passed
through this desert had told wonderful tales of
gigantic skulls and legs and feet which they had
seen sticking out of the rocks. Sometimes an Indian
who had been in the desert many times would insist
that these bones were pushing themselves farther

92 MIGHTY ANIMALS

and farther from out the stone. A skull which, a
few years before, showed little more than the grinning
mouth with its ferocious-looking teeth, had, so this
Indian would say, made its way out of the stone
until much of the head was visible. Neither he nor
any of the Indians who heard his tale knew that it
was the wearing away of the rock that had caused
the skeleton to come into plainer view. They all
supposed that through some miracle the bones of
their gigantic ancestors were rising from their
tombs.

So it is no wonder the Indians objected to any one
going into the desert to disturb these bones. They
were horrified when they saw the white men take up
great rocks containing skeletons and cart them away
to be shipped to museums. In the hope of saving
their forefathers from such an ignoble fate the
Indians fought valiantly with tomahawk and arrow.
So hostile were they that it was necessary at one
time for Professor Marsh to take an escort of United
States troops into the desert with him. Even to-day
the hunter for bones in this region is likely to come
upon a troublesome Indian; for many of the red

THE LITTLE-BRAINED DINOCERAS 93

men have never ceased to resent the invasion of the
white men into this locality. It is not possible to
convince them that the buried skeletons are the
bones of animals and not of human beings. But in
spite of opposition on the part of the Indians, many
skeletons of the Dinoceras have been taken from
these rocks. So far no skin has ever been found with
these skeletons, but there is reason for believing that
Terrible Horn was covered with a skin like that of
the living elephant or rhinoceros.

The desert in which these creatures are found was
once a beautiful country consisting of a chain of
inland seas, on the shores of which grew tropical
vegetation. Vast numbers of gigantic animals and
smaller ones as well lived in these seas and the
surrounding country for many tens of thousands of
years. During all that time the waters were salt
and connected with the ocean on the west. But
the bottoms of some of the seas were slowly rising.
After many thousands of centuries, they had risen
so high they began to form small mountains. These
mountains, through the changes that later took
place on this continent, became the towering ranges

94 MIGHTY ANIMALS

now to be seen in the western part of the United
States.

As the bottoms of the seas rose, the seas themselves
disappeared. But there were other seas, the bottoms
of which did not rise and form mountains. One of
these was in the southwestern part of Wyoming and, as
the mountains formed into the Wasatch range on the
west and the Rockies on the east, they shut off this
sea from the ocean. As thereafter it was fed only
by streams of fresh water, it became a fresh- water
lake. It was not until all these changes had occurred
that the Dinoceras appeared on the shores of this
lake, which was about one hundred miles long. The
climate was still mild, for the mountains had not then
risen high enough to shut off the warm winds from
the ocean.

Here, in this luxurious land, the Dinoceras lived for
many generations. To-day he is famous, chiefly
because of his small brain and the fact that he was
one of the first gigantic mammals in the world. For
many ages before the time of the Dinoceras, the rep-
tiles had ruled the earth, but after the mammals
had once gained the mastery of the reptiles, they

DINOCERAS

(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American Museum of Natural History)

96 MIGHTY ANIMALS

never lost it. The reason for this may be that all
mammals suckle their young instead of leaving them
to feed themselves as best they can, after the manner
of the reptiles. And a young animal protected and
fed in this way stands a better chance of growing
up strong and vigorous than do the young of reptiles.
To-day the most powerful animals in the world are
mammals while the reptiles have to take a subor-
dinate place.

The kingdom over which the Dinoceras exercised
his brute authority was made up of many animals
of different forms and sizes. Some were flesh eaters,
but most of them, like the Dinoceras, lived on plants
and roots. There were big, heavily-built, vicious
creatures resembling the bear; and others, less
fierce, were somewhat like the tapir. Still others
were similar to the cat, the wolf, or the fox.
Moles were digging industriously in the earth.
Monkeys were swinging from the branches of trees
and hiding within the big-leaved foliage. And an
ancestor of the horse, no bigger than a fox terrier,
was running briskly about. When this small creature
happened to get in the pathway of a Dinoceras, he

THE LITTLE-BRAINED DINOCERAS 97

was crushed to death under one huge foot as easily
as a kitten of to-day is crushed by an elephant.

Yet, strange to say, as the centuries passed, this
ancestor of the horse, and others among the small
animals, grew bigger and stronger and the Dinoceras
became less and less powerful until, at last, this
little-brained, big-bodied mammal lived no more on
the earth.

MIGHTY ANIMALS — 7

m Ww x

^ OTHERS

Restoration by diaries Knight
TITANOTHERIUM

(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American Museum of Natural History)

TITANOTHERES AND OTHERS

AFTER the Dinoceras had disappeared from the
western part of the United States, there were still
many strange animals making their homes in that
section of the world. And in no place were they more
numerous than the locality in South Dakota now
called "The Bad Lands." These lands are well
named, for one may walk through them for miles
over a floor of rock, and see nothing in any direction
but other rocks of fantastic shape and wholly bare
of vegetation.

Yet, long ago, it was quite different. There were
lakes all through this part of Dakota, and in the
country around these lakes grew plants of many
kinds. The climate was sunny and warm, and in
these congenial surroundings lived numberless
animals. Among them were some creatures about
the size of a Shetland pony and not at all pleasing
in appearance. Their heads were very odd in shape,
for in the center of the top was a deep depression just

101

102 v.;< MIGHTY ANIMALS

as th^6:i£ kua riding Raddle. And they all had
little stubby knobs sticking up on the tops of their
noses.

Of course, after a time, these animals died. But
they left descendants. These were a little bigger than
the first animals and the knobs on their noses were
a little higher. They, in their turn, left descendants
which were still larger and had knobs on their noses
that were still higher. And so these beasts increased
in size, generation after generation, until, at last,
they reached a point where they were as large as an
elephant. By this time they had stout horns a foot
high on their noses, instead of little stubby knobs.
For thousands of years these big creatures flourished
around the Dakota lakes, then, suddenly, they
disappeared completely.

A million years or more after this remarkable dis-
appearance, some men who were searching for fossils
in the Dakota Bad Lands came upon the bones of one
of these animals near the top of a high bluff. The
men were immediately much interested in their dis-
covery, for, although they were experienced fossil
hunters, they had never before seen bones like these.

TITANOTHERES AND OTHERS 103

After they had unearthed nearly an entire skeleton,
and had sent this skeleton to a museum, where it was
taken from the rock, it was seen that a very large
animal had been found. So he was named Titano-
therium, which means Gigantic Beast.

After this first Titanotherium had been discovered,
many fossil hunters from different museums worked
industriously to find others, and succeeded even
beyond their expectations. Skeletons of these crea-
tures were taken from the bluffs to a depth of one
hundred and eighty feet. Below this depth, other
animals were found which were just like the Titano-
therium, only of smaller size and with shorter horns.
This made the fossil hunters all the more eager to
continue their search. The result was that the
farther down the bluffs they went the smaller were
the skeletons they unearthed. At last, after work-
ing for many summers, they came upon the Titano-
therium's first ancestor, the small creature with the
stubby knobs sticking up on the end of his nose !
The name Titanothere was given this entire family
of animals, but the largest species of that family
still goes by the name of Titanotherium. And

104 MIGHTY ANIMALS

fossil hunters are continually working in the Dakota
Bad Lands in the hope of making new discoveries
concerning all the different members of this strange
family of beasts.

It must not be supposed that these different sizes
of Titanotheres are found buried in neat layers, one
below the other. On the contrary, the different
layers are often in different bluffs. But the farther
down a layer is in a bluff, the smaller are the animals
it contains. So it is known that, from the time the
Titanotheres first appeared on earth until they dis-
appeared, they made their homes in this part of
Dakota. They lived in other parts of that western
country, also, but not in such large numbers as
around the lakes that once made beautiful the now
dreary and uninhabited Bad Lands.

Tens of thousands of years, yes, perhaps, even a
million of years, passed between the time when the
first Titanotheres lived and the time when the last of
the family — the Titanotherium — became extinct.
The general estimate is that it takes nine hundred
and ninety-six years for one foot of rock to be formed
through the action of water on mud. When we re-

TITANOTHERES AND OTHERS 105

member that the rocks in which the Titanotherium is
found extend to a depth of one hundred and eighty
feet and that below this one hundred and eighty feet
are many deep layers of rocks containing all the other
sizes of Titanotheres, we can gain some faint idea of
how long this family of animals lived. And we
know that they ceased to exist while at the highest
point of their growth, because the bones of the largest
members of the family are in the upper layer of rocks.
But why did the Titanotheres disappear just at
the time when it would seem they were well prepared
to hold their own against all odds? This is a ques-
tion that has puzzled even the most learned among
the men who have studied these animals. Some,
however, believe that they slowly starved to death.
They were plant eaters, and unfortunately for them
the climate began to grow cold after they had de-
veloped into huge creatures. This meant that the
trees and grasses were tougher and less plentiful,
and so, as the teeth of the Titanotherium were suited
only to the crushing of soft and juicy food, this
lumbering, slow-witted beast had a hard time of it.
Had he been a larger-brained animal, he might

106 MIGHTY ANIMALS

gradually have found some new way of feeding him-
self. But, as he had a small sluggish brain, he was
incapable of doing this. So, as plants of sturdier
growth began to take the place of the tropical food,
these poor animals, unable to get enough to nourish
their huge bodies, died from weakness. It may have
taken many generations for them all to be thus
vanquished in life's battle, but their downfall was
complete before enough time had passed for them to
decrease in size. This may not be the true reason
for the disappearance of these animals while they
were at the highest point of their development, but
it is the best one so far given by those who have made
a study of the subject.

After all the Titanotheres were dead, the climate
of North America continued to grow colder, but the
change was very gradual. The country was still filled
with many remarkable animals among which was the
Elotherium, a distant and gigantic relative of the pig.
He must have caused terror among the smaller
animals, for he was a fierce brute. His head was
fully a yard long and his sharp teeth show that he
lived on both plants and roots. These beasts

TITAXOTHERES AND OTHERS 107

wandered by the thousands over the plains of
Oregon and as far east as the lake region of South
Dakota, where once reigned the Titanotheres. If
all the animals then living, hideous though they were,
had entered a beauty contest, the Elotherium would
have stood a good chance of winning the booby
prize.

Animals something like the living camel and
llama were in America in those days, strange though
it seems to us now. And fiercest among the flesh
eaters were the saber-toothed cats, some of which
were as large as tigers and had canine teeth seven
inches long. Many a time must they have crouched
in the shadows, their treacherous eyes gleaming as
they waited to pounce on their prey. For they were
all vicious and ever on the watch to kill. Then,
also, there was a rhinoceros, but it was not much
like the rhinoceros of our time. Skeletons of these
creatures have been found by the thousands in
Kansas, and so grouped as to show that hundreds
died together as the result of some terrible disaster.
And, living as neighbor to all these big animals, was
the ancestor of the horse, which had gained in size

108 MIGHTY ANIMALS

since the time of the Titanotheres, but which still
did not look as though he would some day become
the most beautiful and valuable animal in the world.

Nor was America the only country inhabited by
queer animals during this period in the earth's
history. Some very remarkable creatures were
then living in Egypt. One of them was the largest
mammal of his time. No one ever heard of this beast
until 1902, when his bones were found near the
palace in which the Egyptian princess, Arsinoe, sister
of Cleopatra, used to live. The man who found
these bones decided he would name the creature
himself. So he added the word "therium" (beast) to
Arsinoe and made the name Arsinoitherium. If
Arsinoe had been living, he would never have dared
do such a thing. For what princess would tolerate
having as a namesake an animal over five feet tall,
with a short neck, long legs, broad, thick feet, two
high broad horns sticking out from his face, and two
more short horns above them ?

But when the Arsinoitherium was alive there had
never been a princess on earth. The pyramids of
Egypt seem so old to us we are awed when we think

Restoration by Charles Knight

ARSINOITHERIUM

(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American Museum of Natural History)

110 MIGHTY ANIMALS

of them. Yet the Arsinoitherium lived hundreds
of thousands of years before the pyramids were
built. His bones now lie in a desert, but in his life-
time that same locality was a fertile country and
the home of many kinds of animals, most of which
were probably his enemies. /There were gigantic
tortoises, snakes fully sixty feet in length, ostrich-
like birds, big crocodiles, river turtles, sea snakes,
and whales, as well as some very peculiar beasts
which were among the first ancestors of the ele-
phant, although they were but little like the ele-
phants with which we are familiar.

In the course of time many of these animals
entirely disappeared and nothing like them has ever
since been seen. Others slowly changed in form and
developed in size until they became so powerful that
they in their turn were the rulers of the earth, just as
many other mighty creatures had been before them.

(112) Restoration by Charles Knight

MAMMOTH
(After H. F. Osborn. Original in American Museum of Natural History)

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS

SLOWLY, through thousands of years, the elephants
developed from small creatures with short trunks
and tusks, into animals so powerful that, at last,
they were the monarchs of the entire world. Now
they live only in Africa and India, and any one
in other countries who wishes to see one of these
animals must go either to a circus or a zoolog-
ical garden. Yet, in all the places where elephants
are at present exhibited as curiosities, they once
made their homes. For they lived in nearly every
part of Asia and Africa and in Europe and America.
There were many different kinds of them, but none
were exactly like the elephants of to-day. And
mightiest among them all were the Mammoths and
the Mastodons.

When men first began to find the fossil bones of
elephants buried in the earth, they thought them the
bones of human beings. They therefore concluded

MIGHTY ANIMALS — 8 113

114 MIGHTY ANIMALS

that once there were giants in the world. This is the
reason there are so many stories about giants in the
books written long ago. The Greeks believed that
these giants were mighty warriors, and they worshiped
them as heroes. Once when they found the knee bone
of an elephant they thought it was the knee bone of
Ajax, one of the tallest and strongest of these heroes.
But the Greeks were not the only people who
thought that the elephant bones which were found
buried in the earth were those of human beings. In
Switzerland about three hundred and thirty years
ago a violent storm uprooted an oak tree in the
neighborhood of Lucerne. Sticking out from the
big hole thus made in the ground were some enor-
mous elephant bones. A professor in a college at
Basel, after carefully examining them, said that they
were the bones of a man, who in life stood nineteen
feet high. Then he took the bones and put them
together so that they looked something like the
skeleton of a man. The people of Lucerne, believing
from this that their ancestors were giants, thereafter
used the figure of a giant as part of their city arms.
And even to-day a picture of the skeleton made by

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS 115

the Basel professor may be seen in one of the colleges
at Lucerne.

In England, during the reign of Queen Elizabeth,
much excitement was caused by the discovery at
Walton of what was supposed to be the body of a
giant. A man of the time, writing about this dis-
covery, said that the giant's skull would hold five
pecks and that every tooth weighed ten ounces !
Then he added that it was plain to see these bones
were those of a man and not of a beast. In America,
mistakes just as queer were made. Cotton Mather
and other well-known men considered the fossil
elephant bones found throughout the United States
proof that this country was once inhabited by a race
of giants.

When elephant bones were first found in Siberia,
the peasants supposed that gigantic animals were
living far down in the earth. These animals, so said
the peasants, were so strong that, as they traveled
about beneath the ground, they dug out deep caves.
But they could not live in the air and light of the
upper world. Because of this belief, the peasants,
when any elephant bones were discovered, thought

116 MIGHTY ANIMALS

that they belonged to one of these animals which,
in its wanderings, had lost its way and, coming
to the surface of the earth, had died from breath-
ing the air and seeing the light. The Chinese had
a similar belief about the big bones found in their
country.

Although the elephants began to be the rulers of
the animal world long before any people lived, some
of them were still on earth when man first ap-
peared . These were the Mammoths. We know that
this was so because Mammoth bones have been
found in places where there are signs that man once
made his home. In France a piece of fossil ivory
has been discovered with the outline of a Mammoth
sketched upon it. This drawing was the wtfrk of
some one who lived long before people expressed
themselves by the use of written words. For
those first men and women and children had but
little more intelligence than the animals which were
their neighbors. They lived in caves and hunted
these animals for their flesh and skins. And there
were plenty of animals to hunt besides the Mam-
moth. For the bear, hyena, and ox, the bison and

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS 117

horse, the fox and woolly rhinoceros, the Irish elk
and the reindeer, were living then, and other animals,
also. As the British Isles, Europe, and Africa were
all connected at that time, these creatures had a wide
range. The waters, too, were filled with animals,
and through the rivers that crossed Europe hippo-
potamuses swam and waded from Africa to England,
where many of them lived and died.

We may be sure that the flesh eaters among these
animals hunted man even more than man hunted
them. Then, also, the animals fought among them-
selves and men fought one another. So it was a time
of continual warfare.

But, in the days when the Mammoths were the
most powerful, there were no human beings living.
It was probably more because of their numbers than
of their size that these animals held dominion over all
other animals for so long a period of time. It has
often been said that both the Mammoths and the
Mastodons were very much larger than any living
elephants. This is a mistake. To be sure some
of them were taller than are the elephants seen in
exhibitions, for these are rarely more than nine feet

118 MIGHTY ANIMALS

in height. But wild elephants over twelve feet tall
have been captured. So far nothing has been dis-
covered to prove that the Mammoth exceeded thir-
teen feet in height. When we remember, however,
that a ceiling in a dwelling house is seldom more
than ten feet high, an animal thirteen feet tall
seems an enormous creature.

Many of the Mammoths were covered with hair,
and these are known as the Hairy Mammoths. Next
to the skin was a mass- of soft brownish wool ; then
came a layer of fine hair, and outside of this was a
coat of very coarse hair fully eighteen inches long.
This hair kept the Mammoths warm when the cli-
mate was cold and also must have served as a protec-
tion against enemies. For surely when an animal tried
to bite one of these Mammoths he found its hair very
much in his way, and very much in his mouth, too.

The tusks of the Hairy Mammoth were wonderful
and beautiful. Instead of being straight like the
tusks of the living elephant, they curved outward
and upward almost making a circle. They were like
enormous hooks of ivory and sometimes thirteen
feet long. What a mighty beast he was which

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS 119

carried such magnificent ivory hooks on his head !
And what a sight a whole herd of these creatures
must have been when they made their way
through the forests ! Nothing could stop the prog-
ress of such a procession of Mammoths. They
tramped down tall grasses and underbrush, leaving
not a blade or a twig standing. When trees blocked
their passage, they wound their great trunks about
them and laid them low. When they came to the
bank of a river, they forded it if it was shallow, and
swam it if it was deep. As they climbed up the
opposite bank some of them, no doubt, became
mired and found it impossible to free themselves
from the oozing mud. Imprisoned in this manner
they died, sinking farther and farther into the earth
until they entirely disappeared from sight. But the
large majority of this traveling herd made their way
up the bank in safety and journeyed on, leaving
destruction in their pathway. And when they
joined together and sent up a chorus of trumpetings,
terrible was the sound thereof.

Such a scene as this must have occurred count-
less times throughout the world in the very places

120 MIGHTY ANIMALS

where now are great cities in which an elephant is
never seen except when on exhibition. And as-
tonishing does it seem that once such herds traveled
through the United States.

But it was not until after the Mammoths had lived
for a long time in other countries that they came to
America. They found their way here from Asia by
crossing the strip of land that once connected that
continent with Alaska. The Hairy Mammoth
ranged from the Pacific to the Atlantic and about as
far south as the Middle States. Another species,
called the southern Mammoth, was in the meantime
living in Mexico and in the states as far north as
Washington city on the east and Washington state
on the west. These southern Mammoths were even
heavier and more awkward than the hairy species.
Once in a while, some of them wandered up into the
regions where the Hairy Mammoths lived, but they
did not make those regions their real homes.

Yet, after all, the Mammoths were not the kings and
queens among the elephants of America. For the
Mastodons lived here in even larger numbers than did
the Mammoths, and they excelled them in weight, in

122 MIGHTY ANIMALS

strength of muscle, ^nd in length of body, but not in
height. The chief difference, however, between these
two species of elephants was in their teeth, for those
of the Mammoth show a much closer relation to
the true elephant than do those of the Mastodon.

It is thought by some scientists that the Masto-
dons were in America for a long time before the
Mammoths appeared and that they lived here
after the Mammoths had disappeared. Some even
believe that early man in America saw the living
Mastodons, but no positive proof of this has been
found. But we do know that this country con-
tained many other kinds of gigantic animals when
the elephants were living here. Among these animals
were bisons which measured ten feet between the
horn tips ; horses fully as big as any now in existence ;
water rats as large as bears ; stags of amazing size ;
huge sloths and many other creatures now found only
in warm countries. In those days all the countries
in the world that are now cold had milder climates,
although the vegetation was beginning to be much
like that of the present time. There were dense
forests all over America, and the grasses and bushes

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS 123

grew so luxuriantly that they made good feeding
grounds for all of the plant-eating animals.

The Mastodons thrived wonderfully on this diet ;
for, although they lived in all parts of the world, it
was in America that they reached their greatest
size and were the most numerous. They were
scattered from one end of the continent to the other,
and nowadays their bones are frequently found
by farmers as they plow, and by laborers as they
dig ditches or foundations for buildings. Often
these bones are mistaken for logs. And then again
they are so well preserved that whoever discovers
them immediately knows he has brought part of a
gigantic animal to light.

In Missouri, about twenty miles south of St.
Louis, hundreds of Mastodons have been found
together within a small space. Among them are
great big ones which had probably lived to a good
old age, little baby ones, and middle-sized ones.
Michigan, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, Kentucky,
and Florida have also yielded up remarkable skele-
tons of these creatures. But those discovered in
New York are the best preserved, and the reason

124 MIGHTY ANIMALS

for this may be that the animals died by being
caught in mud, which quickly closed over them and
served as an air-tight tomb. With one of these
skeletons was found some long, soft, woolly hair;
so it is thought that there may have been Hairy
Mastodons, just as there were Hairy Mammoths.

None of the Mastodons have been recovered in
as good a state of preservation as have some of the
Mammoths that lived in a cold climate. For this
reason we know more about the way the Mammoth
looked than we do about the appearance of the
Mastodon. In Siberia, Mammoths have been dis-
covered with the skin and flesh still on them. The
first of these discoveries was made in 1799 by a
man who had gone to Lake Onkoul to hunt for
fossil Mammoth tusks. One day he saw a huge,
dark mass looming up out of the ice in the lake,
but he paid no attention to the unusual sight.
The next year he returned to the same place to
hunt, and again saw the strange object in the ice
out in the lake. Still he paid no attention to it.
When he went back once more, three years later,
the big mass had fallen from the ice and drifted

-MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS 125

in toward the beach. Then he saw that it was a
Mammoth. Yet all he did was to cut off the crea-
ture's tusks that he might sell them.

Two years after this, a man by the name of Adams
saw this same Mammoth still lying on the beach.
But by this time little was left of it except the
skeleton. For the natives had fed the flesh to
their dogs and what they had not used the wolves
and bears had torn from the bones and devoured.
The ground all round the skeleton was tramped
down by these wild animals. Mr. Adams searched
beneath their tracks until he found some of the
Mammoth's skin and hair. He then took the skele-
ton and these fragments of skin and hair to St.
Petersburg, a distance of 7330 miles. There the
skeleton was mounted and placed in the museum of the
St. Petersburg Academy, where it may still be seen.

In this same museum is another Mammoth, which
was discovered as far north as the Arctic Circle.
The position in which this animal was found showed
that he had slipped into a deep crevice and had
died while trying to make his way to safety. He
had been eating grass just before he fell and when

126 MIGHTY ANIMALS

unearthed thousands of years later, some of this
grass was still in his mouth ! During a hundred
centuries or more he had stayed in exactly the
position in which he died. This position showed
that he had strained every muscle in his body in
an attempt to work his way up over the edge of
the crevice. But he had burst a blood vessel in the
effort and that was the end of him. After his death,
the earth and ice caved in on him, then froze. In
this way the air was kept from his body so that it
remained without change for thousands of years.

When this creature was alive, Siberia was probably
covered with fir trees and hardy bushes. It could
not have been as icy a country as it is to-day, for the
elephants lived there in large numbers. Thousands
of their fossilized tusks have been found, and many
of them have been sold to manufacturers who have
made them into ornaments or billiard balls. And
those who use the ornaments or play with the bil-
liard balls do not know that they are handling ivory
that once was part of an elephant which lived in
Siberia long before there were any people in the world.

But, after all, one of the most wonderful things

MAMMOTHS AND MASTODONS 127

about the Mammoths and the Mastodons is that
they finally disappeared completely. The elephants
of to-day are, of course, their descendants, but none
of them live in the countries where the Mammoths
and the Mastodons were the most numerous.
America, Europe, and the British Isles probably
contained millions of these gigantic beasts. Yet
they entirely disappeared and no one has yet
been able to give a satisfactory reason for this dis-
appearance. Some men think that the climate of
the whole world suddenly became so cold that the
elephants could not survive the change. Others
believe that early man hunted both the Mammoths
and the Mastodons until all were killed. But
as Europe is the only place in which proofs have
been found that early man and the Mammoth lived
at the same time, and as no such proofs have been
discovered in any country, regarding the Mastodon,
there seems little reason for saying that these ele-
phants became extinct because of man.

MIGHTY ANIMALS — 9

(130)

GLYPTODON

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS

DURING the days when elephants were the mon-
archs of the world, there was a pool in Nevada
where some of them and many other kinds of ani-
mals used to go to drink. At times the ground
around the edge of this pool was so soft that the
feet of the animals sank into it. Sometimes the
footprints thus made in the mud were quickly
covered up by other mud. Slowly, through the
action of the water, all the mud around the pool
was turned into stone. And while this stone was
being formed the pool disappeared and so did the
animals which drank from it.

At Carson City, Nevada, a prison is now stand-
ing where once was this pool. Some years ago it
was discovered that the stones in the prison yard
were dented with impressions of foot tracks. Many
persons who looked at these tracks thought they
had been made by gigantic men who wore mocca-
sins. But now we know that these are the foot-

131

132 MIGHTY ANIMALS

prints of animals which walked over that stone
when it was soft mud around the edge of the little
body of water that, long ago, occupied the site of
the prison.

There are impressions in the rock which show
that a deer walked down to that water's edge. In
another place there is a path trodden by a Mammoth.
In another are deep impressions where some creature
sat down, perhaps to gnaw at a bone, and even the
marks of the coarse hair on this animal's body are
in the rock. Then there are footprints showing
that two animals had a struggle on this very spot.
One braced himself on his heels as if to resist the
attack of the other which stood on his toes as he
struck at his foe or tried to bite him. The peculiar
shape of their footprints tells us that these two
fighters belonged to one of the strongest families of
animals that ever lived — the family of the sloths.
The real home of the sloths was in South America,
but some of them wandered into North America,
and this was particularly true of the species called
Mylodon. The footprints of the fighting animals
at Carson City seem to have been made by My-

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS 133

lodons, and when they visited that pool of water,
they were far away from Patagonia, where most of
the Mylodons then lived.

The only representative of the sloth family now
in existence does not look much as though his
ancestors were among the strongest of all the ani-
mals that ever made their homes on this earth.
For the living sloth is a small, weak creature, unable
to travel over the ground except by crawling along
on the sides of his hands and feet. So he lives in
trees and travels through them by hanging down-
ward from the branches to which he clings with
his claws. When he wants to sleep he rolls him-
self up until he looks like a ball, then suspends
himself from a branch and there hangs, slumbering
as comfortably as though in a nice, cosy nest.
When hungry this creature is satisfied to eat the
leaves nearest him, although others, softer and
juicier, are but a little distance away. This is
because he is too slothful to forage around for his
food.

How different were his mighty ancestors! For
they not only went far at times in search of a meal,

134 MIGHTY ANIMALS

but, after finding it, often fought hard to keep
other animals from snatching it away. And it is
quite possible that those two sloths which fought
by that pool in Nevada may have been quarreling
over some appetizing morsel that both wanted.

But the most active food gatherer among all the
sloths was the Megatherium — Powerful Beast.
Indeed, this animal probably used more strength
in securing his food than did any other animal in
the world. When he felt hungry he started out in
search of a tree for a meal. He went shambling
along, as awkward a sight as one can well imagine ;
for his legs were short, his feet huge, and his body
nearly as large as that of an elephant. Through the
dense forest he made his way until he came to a
tree which his instinct told him would be good to
eat. Then he set to work. First he went all round
the tree, throwing up the earth with his enormous
front paws that ended in long, sharp claws. How
the dirt must have been sent flying as the Megathe-
rium proceeded with his task ! When the ground
about the roots was well loosened, this beast sat
down, firmly planted on his haunches and broad

Restoration by Clement B. Davis
MEGATHERIUMS GATHERING FOOD

136 MIGHTY ANIMALS

tail. Grasping the trunk of the tree in his front
paws he swayed back and forth, the tree swaying
with him. There must have been a loud creaking
of the trunk, an agitated rustling of the leaves,
until down came the big tree with a crash. And
there on the ground lay the Megatherium's break-
fast, or dinner, or supper, as the case might be.
Having worked so hard to get his meal, he probably
enjoyed it all the more and gave the choicest bits,
like the tender leaves and twigs at the top, many a
caressing lick with his very long and very pointed
tongue.

As thousands of Megatheriums once lived on the
American continent many thousands of trees were
laid low by them. It seems most strange that
creatures possessed of such enormous strength
should finally have ceased to exist. By looking at
a Megatherium's skeleton a good idea of his strength
is gained. For then one can see that this crea-
ture's thigh bone was nearly three times as large
around as is the thigh bone of an elephant.
The whole frame reveals muscles of extraordinary
power, and the tail plainly indicates that it helped

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS 137

bear the weight of the Megatherium when he sat
down.

Some of these animals made their homes as far
north as North Carolina, where their bones are
found in old river beds. But for thousands of years
after the gigantic sloths appeared in South America
they were confined wholly to that country. This
was because South America was for a long time an
island. While it remained an island its gigantic ani-
mals ruled the country with little difficulty. But
after a land connection was formed with North
America and the northern animals began to make
their way into South America, there was trouble for
the sloths and other big creatures, for the northern
animals were, as a rule, fiercer in disposition than
were the southern species. The tremendous strength
and long claws of the Megatherium undoubtedly
made him a formidable foe even of the elephant.
But, as he was much more awkward on his feet than
the Ivory King, he surely met with defeat in many
a battle which the two waged against each other.

All the sloths were covered with a very thick
skin, on which grew coarse hair. And in addition

138 MIGHTY ANIMALS

to this protection against the attacks of enemies
the Mylodons were covered all over with small
bones that were sunk deep into the skin. About
the only creature then living in America which
could bite through this skin was the saber-toothed
cat. We are told that when one of these cats
attacked a Mylodon, he jumped on its back and
sank his teeth deeper and deeper into the sloth's
neck until the arteries were severed. Then down
would go the big Mylodon, a victim to a creature
smaller but more vicious than itself.

But, although the Mylodons were not as good
fighters as were the saber-toothed cats, they long
outlived them. It has been proved beyond all
question that the Mylodons were living after man
appeared on this continent. In a cavern in Pata-
gonia Mylodon bones have been found with the
bones of men. And with these Mylodon skeletons
were large pieces of skin covered with greenish
brown hair. Some scientists believe that the Pata-
gonian Indians kept the Mylodons in captivity,
feeding them hay, and then killing them when they
wanted to eat the flesh.

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS 139

An interesting explanation is given by these
scientists regarding the reason for the Mylodon
living so long after the other gigantic animals of
South America became extinct. This explanation
tells us that all the southern part of South America
was rather suddenly covered with water during the
time of the sloths. The only animals in that part
of the world which survived this flood were those
that sought safety on some high section of land,
and among them were a few Mylodons. The ani-
mals lived on the islands thus formed until the land
under the water was reelevated. And the cavern
in which Mylodon bones have been found with the
bones of human beings is supposed to have been on
one of these islands of refuge. All this is only
theory, but it seems a reasonable explanation re-
garding why some of the 'Mylodons lived so long
after all the other gigantic sloths had entirely
disappeared.

Even those strange creatures, ' the Glyptodons,
became extinct while the Mylodons were still
flourishing in many parts of South America. These
animals belonged to the armadillo family and, like

140 MIGHTY ANIMALS

the little living armadillos, were protected by a
bony shield. Only, in the case of the Glyptodon
this shield was of huge size. And resting on the
top of his head was another shield that had the ap-
pearance of a flat hat.

Although this animal was as big as an ox, and
often nine feet or more in length, his legs were so
short that the shield over his back reached almost
to the ground, completely hiding his body except
the feet, the tail, and the head, which was carried
very low down. The tail was made up of what
have been called "movable rings," and the shield,
when closely examined, proves beautiful in design,
for all over it are rosette-like sculptures arranged
in a set pattern.

The shield of the living armadillo is jointed so
that the animal can roll "himself up and be entirely
covered with it as with an armor. The Glypto-
don's shield had no such joints, but was constructed
so solidly that it seems as though no animal which
ever lived could have succeeded in injuring it. So
the Glyptodon carried about with him wherever he
went a valuable protection against enemies. But

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS 141

it may be that the monkeys then living used to
tease the Glyptodon by holding on to his tail and
twisting it round and round in the same way that
the monkeys of South America now plague the
armadillo.

Glyptodon shields in almost perfect condition
have been found imbedded in the ground in various
sections of South America. One of them was put
to a very practical use by a man who was obliged
to live in the forests for a time, far away from the
conveniences to which he had been accustomed.
He found the shield near his shack. With the
help of the natives he got it out of the ground.
Then he built a little addition to his shack, placed
the shield in it upside down antl thereafter used it
as a bathtub. And a very good tub it made, too,
even if it was not porcelain-lined and nickel-plated.

The Glyptodons came up into North America,
but they do not seem to have lived farther north
than Florida. 'At that time in the world's history
glaciers were drifting from north to south over
portions of North America. When these glaciers
began to move southward, the animals migrated in

142 MIGHTY ANIMALS

the same direction to escape the extreme cold. It
was after the ice had drifted north again that the
sloths and other South American animals came
into North America. Then once more the ice began
to drift south, and many animals again journeyed
into South America, where the climate was warmer.
It took many thousands of years for all these
changes in climate to occur, and when animals
shifted their homes from South America to North
America, they may have lived north for many
hundreds of years before they felt the effects of
the slowly approaching ice. After the last retreat
of the ice northward, the Mastodon still lived on in
the northeastern part of the United States. And
about this time the horse, which, for thousands of
years had been developing in this country, mi-
grated to some other country, although just where
he went we do not know. Nor were there ever any
other horses in America until they were brought
here by the Spaniards.

As the centuries rolled by, all the gigantic animals
we have been learning about completely disappeared
from the face of the earth, and man, at last, became

SOME SOUTH AMERICAN RULERS 143

the ruler of the world. Just how long he has now
ruled we do not know, but some scientists think
that human beings have lived on this earth only
about fifty thousand years. Before this the mammals
were in power for three million years or more, and be-
fore them was the reign of the reptiles which lasted
fully seven million years. And then, before the age
of the reptiles, were other forms of life which can be
traced back for so many millions of years that the
mind cannot comprehend them.

As we have already seen, the reason this life can
be traced so far back is because the fossil bones of
many animals which lived in those days are found
buried in rocks. And to-day other rocks are being
formed all over the world through the action of water
on mud and sand and shells, and the bones of crea-
tures familiar to us are being changed into fossils
within these rocks. Perhaps, millions of years
from now, men, women, and children will gaze with
astonishment upon these fossils, just as we now look
in wonder and in awe upon the skeletons of the
mighty animals which lived before man.

MIGHTY ANIMALS

How to pronounce their names

Arsinoe ar-sln'o-e

Allosaurus al'lo-so'rus

Arsinoitherium ar-sm'o-e-the'ri-um

Brontosaurus brSn'to-so'rus

Dinoceras ...... . dl-nos'er-as

Dinosaur dl'no-sor

Diplodocus dip-15d'6-kus

Elasmosaur e-las'mo-s6r

Eiotherium el'6-the'ri-um

Glyptodon . glip'to-don

Ichthyosaur ik'thi-o-s6r'

Ichthyosaurus Ik'thi-6-s6'rus

Mammoth mam oth

Mastodon mas'to-don

Megatherium meg'a-the'n-um

Morosaurus ino'ro-sd'rus

Mosasaur mo'sa-s6r

Mylodon ml'16-don

Plesiosaur ple'sI-6-sor'

Pterodactyl . . . .^ ter'6-dak'til

Stegosaurus steg'o-so'riis

Titanothere tl'tan-o-ther

Titanotherium ti'tan-6-the'ri-um

Triceratops tri-ser'a-tops

Tyranriosaurus ti-ran'6-so'rus

Uinta u-In'ta

Uintatherium u-m'ta-the'ri-um

144

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